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Ten more hostages taken as UK reiterates `no deals'

Britain is ready to listen to the Islamic extremists who have been holding Kenneth Bigley hostage in Iraq for two weeks, but not to negotiate with them, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday.

"We've made it clear, we have a policy which we adhere to, strictly and always, that we don't negotiate with hostage-takers," Straw told GMTV television.

"But we want Mr. Bigley released," he said from Brighton, southern England, where the governing Labour Party was wrapping up its annual conference yesterday. "Were the hostage takers to get in touch with us, we would obviously listen to what they have to say."

He added: "That in no sense undermines our position and it may be that they are saying things that are consistent with our position which can secure Mr. Bigley's release."

Bigley, 62, an engineer from Liverpool, was seized from his Baghdad home on Sept. 16 along with two US colleagues who have since been executed. He appeared in a grainy video, aired on Wednesday on al-Jazeera television, sitting in a cage as he renewed a plea for British Prime Minister Tony Blair to save him.

Bigley is being held by the militant group Tawhid and Jihad.

Speaking in Brighton on Wednesday, Blair said Tawhid and Jihad had "made no attempts to make contact with us at all."

"Of course, if they did make contacts, that would be something we would immediately respond to," Blair added.

Meanwhile, al-Jazeera yesterday showed footage of 10 new hostages seized in Iraq by militants.

Al-Jazeera said the 10, including six Iraqis, two Lebanese and two Indonesian women, were taken by The Islamic Army in Iraq. The group had claimed responsibility for seizing two French journalists in recent weeks.
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